real traditionnal miso should be vegan...the same is true for seaweed.
But modern korean and japanese manufacturers cheat and add fish sauce when they dry the seaweed and fish in various forms to their miso...to "speed" up the process and artificially give it that salty flavour without actually aging it the way they should.

Unless you can read korean and japanese don't buy any product where the ingredients are only in those languages...DO NOT blindly trust storeowners (unless you know them well obviously ;-) and even if you can read the language, remember that laws in Korea, China and Japan are quite different than here and many times if something is considered a condiment or a spice they can NOT LIST IT (for proprietory reasons and to protect their recipes) and often when you buy an asian food stuff and it says "spices" spices can mean anything from fish flakes to shrimp powder to fish sauce to even powdered eggs and milk!
If you go to your health food store instead of the asian market and buy REAL miso, a bit more expensive but worth it.
It should be vegan.
here in Ontario I buy this miso: www.traditionmiso.com/ and it is delicious!
and from the asian vegetarian market (that I trust) I buy this delicious white miso from taiwan, the ingredients are rice, organic soybeans and bamboo salt not even a culture or alcohol...:-) it's from Penn Chion trading Co.

try it on open wounds.

Thanks Antoine. That explains my miso soup failures. Now I'm ready to try again.

Thank you much!

But what about the yellow miso?

Philip, would you share your white miso recipe? please? or give us a link?

I go trough a lot of it and keep running out, the Asian store is far for me on a bike...I would make it unless I need some fancy equipment. is it just soybeans and salt?

I grow a lot of eggplants and this way of cooking is one of my favorite's and my sweeties favorite, so he always asks for eggplants cooked this way. Mix 1/2 white miso and 1/2 grated ginger, add a few drops of dark sesame oil and stuff on pre-grilled or broiled eggplants (after opening a slit on the long ones, slice the fat ones in thick slices). Add some sesame seeds on top and place under broiler until sesame seeds are brown.

The above recipe pleases folks who claim to dislike both miso and eggplant, so you might want to give it a try.

I also dislike tahini! I always omit it from hummus or use other nut butters instead. I will have to give it a try with the seeds roasted though.